CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Kye
EVIDENCE TECHS SWARMED THE FRONT OF MY YARD AS GAbrIEL, Anson, and Trace sat at the kitchen island. A spot that, just two hours ago, was home to pancakes, a craft project, and a teenage girl who’d gotten her first brand-new hockey gear. The contrast only made me rage more.
Whoever this was didn’t get what they were destroying. They didn’t understand the beautiful gift I’d been given that they were endangering and threatening to collapse. But maybe they did know and didn’t give a damn.
Fallon handed me a mug decorated with tiny dinosaurs. “Drink this.”
My gaze dropped to the cup. “Did you get me a dinosaur mug?”
Her mouth curved. “Look on the other side.”
I flipped the mug around. It read: Being a big brother is a walk in the park—Jurassic Park.
A laugh tore from my throat. It was the last sound I’d thought to make at the moment. I wrapped an arm around Fallon and pressed a kiss to her head. “Thank you.”
“Always. And the tea is supposed to be good for soothing anxiety and promoting calm.”
“Please, tell me it’s not a blend Lolli gave you,” Trace muttered as he eyed his mug.
Anson took a pull of his tea. “I hope it’s the one that had her taste-tester seeing pink bunnies.”
“I heard the second batch had folks thinking they’d turned into cats, complete with the meowing,” I muttered.
Gabriel just shook his head. “How that woman hasn’t ended up in lockup is beyond me.”
“It’s only a matter of time,” Trace mumbled.
“Rest easy,” Fallon assured them. “This is a blend Sutton ordered for The Mix Up. No cannabis or psychedelics on the ingredient list.”
“Damn.” Anson lifted his cup and took another sip.
I set my mug down and pulled Fallon in tighter against my side. “No more tiptoeing. Give it to us straight.”
I knew what they were trying to do. They wanted to ease things for Fallon and me after a charged morning. We couldn’t hide the state of the front yard from the girls. Or the fact that something was seriously wrong. All three of them were on edge, waiting for Ellie to pick them up.
The fact that this asshole had scared my sisters and Fallon made me want to dip into that dark side of myself. The one that would let me wipe them from the planet without a second thought.
“Dex is on his way,” Anson said. “He’s already tapped into your security system and is looking through the video footage to see if we can get a look at the unsub.”
Anson’s white hat hacker friend, who was really more of a morally gray hat, had saved our asses more than once. The fact that he was willing to take more time away from his life and his job with the FBI spoke to his character.
“What does this latest incident tell you?” I asked.
Anson’s thumb traced the handle of his mug. “It says this is more personal than we first realized. Did you hurt anyone during the underground fights?”
My gut clenched as I forced myself to swallow the acid surging up my throat. “They were gloves-off fights. I hurt plenty of people.”
Just saying that out loud had the darkness flaring inside me—the demons that shared the same opinion as the unsub. That I didn’t deserve any of this.
Fallon’s hand fisted in my tee. “That’s in the past. You were doing what you had to do to protect yourself.”
But that wasn’t entirely true. For a time, sure.
But then I’d done it hoping to earn enough money to get my own place.
So I wouldn’t need the Colsons’ handouts.
So I could be with Fallon the way I wanted to be.
I’d doled out violence for selfish reasons, and that was something I’d have to live with for the rest of my days.
“Some of it was that. Some of it was selfish. I wanted to be free. Wanted you.” I needed to admit it aloud. Needed her to know. Needed all of them to know.
Fallon reached up and framed my face in her hands. “I love you. Nothing you could tell me will ever change that. You were sixteen. You made some mistakes.”
“I sure as hell hope no one judges me for the choices I made as a teenager,” Gabriel muttered.
“Or way past then,” Trace added.
Anson nodded. “No one who walks this Earth is perfect, Kye. The best we can do is let our mistakes shape us for the better. I see you doing that every damn day.”
Fallon kissed the underside of my jaw. “He’s right.”
I tried to let all their kindness and understanding in. Their support.
Fallon burrowed deeper into me. “I know it’s hard to go back there.
But you have to remember that you’ve grown.
Changed. But I’ll never wish that boy away.
He’s the one I fell in love with. The fierce defender of everyone he’s ever cared for.
Listener to all who need an ear. Creator of safe places for all who know him. ”
She gripped me harder, forcing my gaze to hers. “People think I’m the empath, but it’s you. You take on the feelings of everyone around you, then meet them in their darkest places and show them it’s okay to face the darkness.”
I dropped my forehead to hers, my mouth brushing hers. “I love you, Sparrow.”
“My everything,” she whispered.
“Fuck, my eyes are leaking,” Gabriel muttered.
Anson slapped him on the back. “Feel those feelings, my man.”
Trace shook his head. “What happened to you?”
“My question exactly,” a new voice said. “He used to communicate solely with grunts and scowls. Now, he smiles.”
Dex appeared, his familiar, ever-present messenger bag slung over his shoulder in the most bizarre juxtaposition I could imagine. Tall and broad with a build that made it clear he wasn’t a stranger to a gym, it was as if he was a cross between a mountain man, a biker, and a professor.
Wire-framed glasses were perched on his nose, but ink peeked out from his sleeves and covered his hands and fingers. He wore jeans, hiking boots, and an outdoorsman jacket, but the T-shirt beneath read: Hacking. Because punching people is frowned on.
“Forget Anson’s creepy-ass smiles. He tries to play matchmaker,” Trace said, sliding off his stool and crossing to Dex.
Dex took his hand in a warm shake. “He tried to hug me the last time I was here. That’s just crossing a line.”
Anson stood and moved to his friend. “Prepare your soul because I’m about to do it again.”
Dex laughed but gave him a back-slapping hug in return. “At least you warned me this time.”
Gabriel saluted him. “Thanks for dropping everything and coming out this way.”
“Well,” Dex said, sliding his messenger bag off, “my tenure with the FBI has finally come to an end, so I had some time on my hands.”
Anson’s gray-blue eyes flared. “Seriously?”
“I promised them ten years. That ended exactly two weeks ago.”
Concern made a home in Anson’s expression. “How do you feel about that?”
“Honestly? It’ll be nice not having them looking over my shoulder all the time.”
Fallon frowned. “You didn’t want to work for the FBI?”
One corner of Dex’s mouth kicked up. “I didn’t really have a choice. I got caught hacking into their files when I was in college, and they don’t particularly like that.”
Fallon’s jaw went comically slack. “You broke into the FBI?”
He shrugged. “I was bored.”
“That’s what happens when you don’t keep geniuses occupied,” Anson muttered.
Trace’s brow quirked. “Like you’re one to talk. Your IQ is ridiculously high.”
“I’m a reformed genius,” Anson explained.
“Well, how about we put both your brains to good use and figure out what the hell is going on here,” Gabriel muttered.
The levity in Dex’s expression disappeared. He pulled out his tablet and lowered himself to a stool. “The way the cameras are positioned, there’s no view of the unsub.”
I gritted my teeth. “Not even at the gate?”
“Nope.” Dex tapped a few things on his tablet. “I’m guessing he hopped the fence because he knew where the cameras were. And likely broke into your system. It’s not especially hacker proof.”
I muttered a curse. “You think you can remedy that?”
Dex’s eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas. “It would be my pleasure.”
“Oh, fuck,” Anson muttered. “He’s going to send some world-ending computer virus to anyone who tries to get into your system.”
“Don’t shit on my hobbies,” Dex shot back.
“All right, all right. Stay focused,” Trace ordered. “Anson, you asked if Kye had hurt anyone in the underground fights. Why?”
Anson wrapped his hands around his mug again. “This feels a lot like revenge—hurting people involved in that ring. But now this person is focused on you. Telling you that you don’t deserve the good things in your life. That’s personal.”
Fallon’s fingers threaded through mine. “It’s okay. Just try to remember what you can.”
I nodded jerkily. “I hurt plenty of people during the fights, and plenty hurt me. A couple had to go to the hospital, but I don’t think I did any permanent damage to anyone.”
Anson frowned. “What about someone you defeated? Someone desperate for the prize money.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Everyone who signed up for those fights was desperate. For money, for the release of whatever darkness lived inside them …”
“If a fight you won is linked to a traumatic event for someone, it wouldn’t take much for them to focus on you. And if they’ve started to fixate, they’ve been watching you. You getting married and starting a family could have triggered them,” Anson explained.
The room fell away around me as a lead weight settled in my gut. The people mixed up in the world I’d left behind were the worst of the worst. And I knew they’d do anything to tear down the people they saw as enemies—especially if that person had a glimmer of something they didn’t. Happiness.